Trump Campaign Collusion with Russia in its Interference in the 2016 US Presidential Election

Democratic National Committee Penetration

DNC Logo

On June 14, 2016, the first public reports appeared about Russian government hackers penetrating the Democratic National Committee (DNC). One group of hackers, believed to be Russian intelligence FSB, had gained full access to all email and chat traffic, maintaining access for about a year. Another group of hackers, believed to be Russian military intelligence GRU, targeted opposition files, gaining access to the computers of the entire research staff and stealing files including the DNC’s opposition research on Trump and voter info. Source

On June 15, 2016, “Guccifer 2.0” leaked documents stolen from the Democratic National Committee, including an opposition research file on Donald Trump. Source

On July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks published a collection of leaked DNC emails in the first of a series of such leaks. Source From July–October 2016, Wikileaks continued to serially publish leaked emails from the DNC, John Podesta, and others. Source

On July 25, 2016, the FBI announced it had opened an investigation into the hacking of the DNC. It later revealed that their investigation also targeted Donald Trump’s advisors’ contacts and links with Russian government officials and intelligence operatives, and whether there was coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia’s efforts. Source (Comey testimony)

On July 26, 2016, widespread news reports stated that US intelligence officials concluded with high confidence that Russia was behind the DNC hacks and Wikileaks publication of DNC emails. Source

Crowdstrike, Fidelis Cybersecurity, Mandiant, SecureWorks, and ThreatConnect agreed that Russia was behind the leak of DNC emails to Wikileaks. Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Further, a DNI report (PDF) said US intelligence agreed with “high confidence,” and that Vladimir Putin directed the effort. US Intelligence said that Russia’s intentions with the email leaks were to help Trump. Source

In October 2016, the Democratic National Committee reported to the FBI that it found evidence its headquarters may have been bugged. Source